PKFARE takes the stress out of ticket refund turmoil
The process of air ticket refunds and changes is complex, involving communication among retailers, ticket agents, and airlines. The rules and regulations for customers vary widely, making manual processing time- consuming and error prone.
Enter PKFARE with its post-ticketing automation features, enabling automatic verification and pricing for refund requests, and automatic verification for change requests.
This advanced API now covers almost 300 airlines, with more than 70% of refund requests from a single customer being automatically verified, while the proportion exceeds 50% on the booking portal.
PKFARE says the difficulty in implementing post-ticketing automation lies in the numerous challenges it faces.
Firstly, the rules for ticket refunds and changes are diverse, varying across different ticket sources and different scenarios. Secondly, the accuracy of existing rules needs improvement. Thirdly, many rules lack structured descriptions, making it difficult for machines to interpret.
PKFARE believes its post-ticketing automation API addresses these challenges primarily in two aspects: covering more airlines and business scenarios and ensuring higher accuracy in interpreting customer rules.
The result, PKFARE says, is a streamlined ticket refund and change process, reducing operational costs for itself and its partners while improving end-user satisfaction.
Trip.com hops onboard with Vietjet
Vietjet Air and Trip.com are ready to cooperate on a range of travel content, products and airline deals.
The pair has signed an MOU offering Trip.com Group’s products, including hotels, airport transfers, attractions and activities, to customers on Vietjet’s website.
For Vietjet, the benefits of the deal will include Trip.com’s technologies, such as the Virtual Interline solution, to widen Vietjet’s global network footprint.
Customers will also enjoy benefits from both parties’ loyalty programmes. Members of Vietjet SkyJoy and Trip.com Rewards can accumulate reward points to exchange for gifts, flight tickets, and other incentives from various third-party products and services.
European Sleeper awakens night trains
European Sleeper, the European night train service now connecting Brussels with Prague via Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Berlin, has struck a distribution deal with Distribusion, making tickets available on platforms such as Google and Omio.
European Sleeper, a Dutch-Belgian railway company dedicated to operating night trains, was founded by entrepreneurs Elmer van Buuren and Chris Engelsman. The first night train launched on 25 May 2023 between Berlin and Brussels and is extending to Dresden and Prague this year.
The company was launched as a cooperative in May 2021 and within 15 minutes, European Sleeper raised €500,000 in seed capital, by selling shares to more than 350 small investors from various countries in Europe and beyond.
In investment rounds 2022 and 2023, shares worth four million euros were sold to about 3,000 new investors. In a current share funding, another one million euros is being raised.
“The result is an enthusiastic night train community that is actively involved in the company,” Engelsman said.
Phnom Penh’s new green airport
Technology is central to the Foster + Partners-designed Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh, intending to make it one of the greenest airports globally.
Almost the entire terminal will be powered with energy generated by an onsite solar panel farm.
In addition to the solar panel farm, Foster + Partners plans to add greenery to the new airport with mature trees planted through the central area beneath a roof canopy resembling tropical trees.
The airport is expected to be fully operational by 2025 when a new highway will connect it to the southern part of Hun Sen boulevard in Phnom Penh.
